Cicero: On the Orator, Books I-II (Loeb Classical Library No. 348)

Cicero (Marcus Tullius, 106–43 BCE), Roman lawyer, orator, politician and philosopher, of whom we know more than of any other Roman, lived through the stirring era which saw the rise, dictatorship, and death of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic. In his political speeches especially and in his correspondence we see the excitement, tension and intrigue of politics and the part he played in the turmoil of the time. Of about 106 speeches, delivered before the Roman people or the Senate if they were political, before jurors if judicial, 58 survive (a few of them incompletely). In the fourteenth century Petrarch and other Italian humanists discovered manuscripts containing more than 900 letters of which more than 800 were written by Cicero and nearly 100 by others to him. These afford a revelation of the man all the more striking because most were not written for publication. Six rhetorical works survive and another in fragments. Philosophical works include seven extant major compositions and a number of others; and some lost. There is also poetry, some original, some as translations from the Greek. The Loeb Classical Library edition of Cicero is in twenty-nine volumes.

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>i.
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IN TWENTY-EIGHT VOLUMES
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DE ORATORE
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CONTENTS
PAGl
Preface
vii
ix
Introduction
LlST OF ClCER0's
WORKS
XXV
—
Text and Translation
Book I
—
Book
Appendix
II
2
196
480
PREFACE
his name does not appear on the title-page,
any merit discoverable in the translation of De
Oratore, Book I is largely due to my friend Mr.
Charles Stuttaford, sometime of Amersham Hall
Thougb
Originally entrusted with the execution of
both these volumes, he had done much preliminary
work on the text and translation of Book I, when
reasons of health compelled him to rehnquish his
task.
I most gratefully acknowledge my heavy
indebtedness to his labours.
E. W. S.
School.
25th February 1939
The
late Mr. E. W. Sutton left at his death only
the MS. and proof of his translation of De Oratore,
Book I, and three-quarters of Book II, at various
stages of correction.
I have completed the volume.
An
index
will
be found
in
Volume Two, which
contains De Oratore, Book III, De Fato, Paradoxa
Stoicorum, and De Partitione Oraioria.
H. R.
January 1949
vii
—
INTRODUCTION
Date and Purpose of the Work
The circumstances in which
On the Orator and the object
Cicero wrote his essay
that he had in view can
be inferred from the following three passages in his
letters
:
Ad
Atticum iv. 13. 2 (November 55 b.c). De Jibris
factum est a me diligenter diu multumque in
manib; us fuerunt.
oratoriis
:
Ad Fam.
nam ab
i.
9.
23 (September 54 b.c).
Scripsi etiam
me referoque ad mansuetiores
me nunc maxime sicut iam a prima adu-
orationibus diiungo
Musas, quae
lescentia
delectarunt
—
igitur Aristotelio more,
volui, tres libros in disputatione
scripsi
quemadmodum quidem
ac dialogo de oratore, quos arbitror Lentulo tuo non fore
inutiles
abhorrent enim a communibus praeceptis atque
omnium antiquorum, et Aristoteliam et Isocratiam,
rationem oratoriam complectuntur.
;
Ad
Atticum xiii. 19. 4 (45 b.c). Sunt etiam de oratore
nostri tres (libri), mihi vehementer probati.
In eis quoque
eae personae sunt ut mihi tacendum fuerit, Crassus enim
loquitur, Antonius, Catulus senex, C. lulius frater Catuli,
Cotta, Sulpicius.
Puero me hic sermo inducitur, ut nullae
esse possent partes meae.
Quae autem his temporibus
[i.e. 45 B.c] scripsi Aristotelium morem habent, in quo
sermo ita inducitur ceterorum ut penes ipsum sit principatus.
We
thus lean>4h|it Cicero finished the book in the
early winter oi 55 B.c.,.when he had been working on
<^
rv
INTRODUCTION
some time ; and we infer that he published it
soon afterwards, since in the following September
he promises to send a copy to his friend Lentulus for
the use of his son. He remarks to Lentulus that he
has now almost entirely given up composing speeches,
and has returned to his youthful love, the humane
it for
letters.
He had indeed for some time lived entirely withdrawn from public life, where even previously he had
lost all power of influencing the course of afFairs.
In
63 B.c. the oligarchical party had been glad to make
use of his legal and oratorical talents in the suppression of the conspiracy of Catiline
but they were not
willing to make any sacrifices in order to repay him
for his services, and in 58 b.c. they allowed Clodius
to procure his banishment in punishment for the
;
alleged illegality of his procedure in the Catilinarian
A year later Pompeius, finding Clodius more
dangerous, again required Cicero's assistance, and
procured his recall from exile. He was warmly welcomed back by the pubHc, but he was no longer of
affair.
any
political
importance, although he
in the law-courts,
still appeared
where he delivered some consider-
able speeches.
In 55 b.c. however, when the imof the triumvirs was prolonged for five
years, he withdrew from the courts as well as from
the senate, and devoted his leisure to study, the first
fruits being the present treatise.
Of its merits he himself took a high view the
tone in which he wites of it to Atticus (in the third
extract above) is very different from the apologetic
way in which ten years later he spoke about his philosophical works
these he referred to as d7r6ypa(}>a,
mere transcripts from Greek originals, that cost him
perium
;
:
INTRODUCTION
The present work is indeed worthy
labour.
of the greatest of Roman orators, who regards oratory as of supreme practical importance in the guidance of affairs, and who resolves, while his mindis still
vigorous and powerful, to devote his enforced leisure
to placing on record the fruits of his experience, for
the instruction of future statesmen.
- The treatise is composed in the form of a conversation, though its method is very different from that
of the dialogues of Plato. In those the conversational
form is employed to convey the feeling of corporate
research into complicated abstract questions, progressing towards the truth but not attaining it with
sufficient certainty and completeness to justify its
being expounded dogmatically ; the positive results,
so far as any can be ehcited, are merely tentative.
In Cicero's dialogues on the contrary the facts in
respect to the matter under consideration are redoctrines are exgarded as already ascertained
pounded as dogmatic truths, the dialogue form being
adopted as a vivid method of exhibiting the manysided nature of the subject and the departments into
which a systematic treatment of it falls. If differing
opinions about it are introduced, the parts of them
that are valid are accepted and put together in a
single system.
> In the second of the passages quoted above Cicero
^escribes the work as written in the Aristotehan
\manner.' Its manner is extremely unhke jthat of
the works oF Arfstotle that have cottie 3own to us,
which are rigidly scientific expositions, in jjlaces
hardly more than outlines and enumerations of
arguments, and which have been conjectured to be
the Master's actual notes for his lectures. We^now
little
;
*
xi
INTRODUCTION
however that Aristotle also wrote dialogues, in which
he published his doctrines in a more popular form,
but all of them have now been lost." It is this group
of Aristotle's works the method of which, disputatio et
dialogus, Cicero claims to have adopted in the present
treatise, as a vehicle by which to convey the oratorical
\system of Aristotle himself and that of IsOcrates.
Some difficulty has been felt to be raised by the third
passage quoted, which is ten years later in date
in
1
;
Cicero contrasts De Oratore with his later philosophical dialogues, on the ground that in the former
he is not himself one of the party, the scene being
laid in the time of his boyhood, whereas in the latter
he follows the Aristotehan plan of assigning the
principal part in the discussion to himself (a feature
in Aristotle's dialogues of which we have no other
evidence, but which we must accept on Cicero's
authority).
But in point of fact there is no discrepancy. The comparison with Aristotle in the
latter passage relates to the assignment of the parts
that in the former refers to the dialogue form. Also
it must be noticed that in the former passage Cicero
claims to have adopted the Aristotehan method at
all events as far as I thought fit
this qualification
may well hint at the difFerence from Aristotle consisting in the author's taking no part in the dialogue
it
:
'
'
:
himself.
SCENE AND DaTE OF THE DiALOQUE
Details are given by the author in the introductory passages at the beginning of each of the
"
The
recently recovered Athenian Constitution does not
exactly into either class ; it is not a dialogue, but a
straightforward exposition in a fully finished form.
fall
INTRODUCTION
three Books ; they will be found in the outline
below, pp. XV, xix, xxi.
Persons of the Dialooue
v^
LJ^icinius Crassus was born in 140 b.c, and was
therefofefor^y^inFyears old at the date when the
discussion is supposed to take place, September 91 b.c.
He died only a few days after that date. He was
a leading figure among the moderate and judicious
optimates, though it is true that he gave his name to
an unwise law checking the movement to strengthen
Rome by extending the citizenship to the Latins.
He passed through the cursus honorum, becoming
consul in 95 b.c. He was the mostiUiistrisius^Roman
orator before Cicerorandj^HerrXicerowas a boy he
act^T^^Tus^Tutof in rhetoric. Ih" the^^present dialogue he is the moiitHpiece of Cicero's own opinions.
M. Antonius, the grandfather of the triumvir, was
Crassus's senior by three years.** As praetor 103 b.c.
he put down piracy in Cilicia and was awarded a
triumph. Six years later he was a vigorous censor.
Four years after the supposed date of the dialogue
he fell a victim to Marius, whose minions murdered
him when at supper at a friend's house.
In coUoquy with these two great orators Cicero
introduces two of the most distinguished of their
younger foUowers.
P. Sulpicius Rufus was now thirty-three years old.
He was one^FtHe^chief hopes of the optimate party,
being a moderate conservative and foUowing Drusus
in his movement for limited reform.
Later however
he swung over to Marius and the extremists, and
when (ten years after the date of the dialogue) SuUa
' Cic.
Brutua 161
triennio.
INTRODUCTION
made
himself master of Rome, he with Marius was
proscribed, and soon after murdered.
C. Aurelius Cotta, a young man of less vigorous
character, of the "sarile age as Sulpicius, attached
himself in a similar manner to Antonius. He also
belonged to the party of conservative reform, but
unhke Sulpicius he remained a moderate and never
joined the extreme reformers.
Sulla therefore
allowed him to return from exile in 82 b.c. and resume
his career.
He rose to be consul in 75 b.c, and died
the next year, after achieving some minor miUtary
successes as proconsul in Gaul.
^ /
5" These four characters take part in the whole of
^Cj. <T;he dialogue.
Q. Mucius Q. F. Scaevola the Augur
figures in Book I only.
He was nearly or quite
seventy years old at the time, having been consul
117 B.c. He was a learned lawyer, and an adherent
of the Stoic philosophy, being a member of the
Hellenizing Scipionic circle.' In extreme old age
he refused to figure as an adherent of SuUa. Cicero
tells Atticus {ad Att. iv. 16. 3) that he thought it suitable to his character and interests to introduce him
at the beginning of the discussion, but due to his
years to spare him the rcxi^oAoyia of the later part.
He is represented as displaying great legal knowledge and experience of the world ; he somewhat
disparages the value of rhetoric, and questions the
need of a wide Uterary and philosophic education
^"
'
an orator.
Books II and III introduce two others, Q^^Lutatius
Catulus and his half-brother C. Juhus Caes^^^trabo
for
—
Vopiscus.
Catulus first appears in history as colleagiie of Marius in the consulship, 102 b.c.
In the
next year as proconsul he failed to check the Cimxiv
INTRODUCTION
brians from invading Gallia Transpadana, but with
Marius defeated them at Vercellae
according to
Plutarch the greater part of the credit was due
to Catulus.
They celebrated a triumph together.
Fourteen years later on Marius's return to Rome he
made Catulus one of his victims : moriatur was
his instruction.
Catulus was an officer and gentleman of spotless integrity ; he also had considerable
:
*
'
Uterary gifts.
Vopiscus early won a position at the bar, and was
aedile in the year after the date of the dialogue.
He too fell a victim to Marius.
OUTLINE OF CONTENTS
Book
I (§§ 1-23) Introduction
(§§ 1-5)
Cicero sub-
stitutes this essay for his earUer writings
on rhetoric,
:
in order to satisfy his brother Quintus's desire for
a discussion of the functions of the orator, and to
own view that the orator requires a vdde
liberal education.
(§§ 6-15) Great orators are rare,
not owing to dearth of abiUty, but because of the
difficulty of the art, and in spite of its attractions.
(§§ 16-23) It calls for wide knowledge, command of
language, psychological insight, wit and humour, a
good deUvery and a good memory even if we only
aim at the eloquence requisite for pubUc Ufe, and
consider it not theoreticaUy but in the Ught of
practical experience.
The treatise gives
(§§ 24-29) Scene of the dialogue.
an account of a discussion held. in September 91 b.c.
at the Tusculan viUa of Anjf6niufe, t)etween him and
Cra«sus"^"*a minor share being taken by Scaevola,
justify his
—
Sulpicius
and Cotta.
The
discussion
was
as foUows
:
XV
INTRODUCTION
30-95) Oratory, its nature and range.
30-34) Crassus praises oratory as of primary
importance to society and the state
the orator's
position is eminent, gratifying and powerful for
good he excels in the very gift wherein man is
superior to animals, discourse of reason.'
(§§ 35-44) Scaevola objects that Crassus Overrates
the political influence of orators and exaggerates the
range of their powers
they are often incapable of
dealing with questions of law, philosophy and science.
Their proper sphere is the law-courts and political
debates.
(§§ 45-57) Crassus replies that this is indeed the
Greek view, but it puts the function of oratory too
low.
Yet even if thus limited to politics it calls for
(§§
(§§
:
;
*
:
wide knowledge, and on the other hand men of
science and philosophers borrow style from oratory,
although style is not as essential for them as a command of matter is essential for the orator, especially
in order to control the emotions of the audience.
(§§ 58-68) Eloquence does not itself bestow political
knowledge, but the orator must be well versed in
pohtical and also moral science.
(§§ 69-73) In power
of expression and range of subject he compares with
the poet; and his style will reveal whether he has
had a wide education.
74-79) Scaevola repeats that such a range of
is beyond the reach of most orators.
Crassus disclaims it himself, but maintains it as the
(§§
knowledge
ideal.
80-95) Antonius thinks that so much knowledge
unattainable in a practical career, and also likely
to form a style too abstract to be useful.
He reports
(§§
is
a debate at Athens between a Stoic, Menedemus,
xvi
INTRODUCTION
who disparaged rhetoric altogether, and an Academic,
Charmadas, who held that it should be based on
philosophy, giving examples ; Charmadas denied
any science of rhetoric, saying that oratory depends
merely on natural aptitude and practice, and has
Antonius says that
to go to philosophy for matter.
he has never heard real eloquence, though it may
be a possibihty.
(§§ 96-112) Crassus is urged to expound his views
more fully, and with reluctance consents to do so.
(§§ 102-109) He asks, is there an art " of rhetoric ?
This is a question rather for a Greek. But when
pressed he says that there is none, in the strict sense,
although if one reduces the results of observation and
experience to a system one may produce a sort of
art.
He is urged to give the results of his own
experience.
(§§ 113-262) The requirements of the orator.
(§§ 113-128) Natural gifts are essential for high
success, although the ideal is hard to attain. Antonius
orators are more exposed to criticism than
agrees
even actors. (§§ 129-136) Crassus concurs, as every
defect is noticed at once. He praises the natural
they only
gifts of Sulpicius and the zeal of Cotta
need training, so he will describe his own method.
(§§ 137-147) He began by taking the school course
in rhetoric, treating (1) the purpose of oratory, (2)
the classification of subjects, (3) the determination
of the point at issue, (4) the three kinds of oratory,
:
;
forensic,
divisions,
"
It
dehberative and panegyric
(5)
invention, arrangement, style,
;
its
five
memory
must be remembered that ars means a systematio
treatment of a subject and conveys the sense that
rather to the
word
'
science.'
Cf.
Book
we
attach
II, § 30.
xvii
INTRODUCTION
and delivery
;
(6)
proper parts
;
(7) rules
the division of a speech into the
of diction. Such a system
though useful has not in fact been the guide of the
Practice is all-important ; it includes
ablest orators.
148-159) speaking on cases taken from real
iLfe, occasionally impromptu ; writing compositions,
for training both in style and in matter ; making
paraphrases of poetry, especially Greek poetry, and
prose, from memory ; training voice and gesture ;
(§§
speaking in pubhc ; critical reading
debating pro and contra
study of
history, law and politics
coUecting notes. Wide
memoria technica
of literature
;
;
;
;
knowledge is essential. The true orator possesses
dignity and force (160-204).
(§§ 205-209) Sulpicius asks for further detail, and
Antonius consents to give his own views. (§§ 209-218)
He challenges Crassus's definition an orator must
be able to speak agreeably and convincingly on public
questions, but does not require wide general culture
that is a matter belonging to some other art. (§§ 219233) In order to work on the emotions he needs
shrewdness, experience and knowledge of the world,
but not philosophy some effective hnes of pleading
might be disapproved of by philosophers. (§§ 234it
239) Wide knowledge of law is also unnecessary
is eloquence that wins cases, and on hard points of
law even the experts disagree. (§§ 240-250) Nor is
law an easy or attractive study.
general acquaintance with its principles is all that a busy man can or
need attain details should be got up for the occasion.
(§§ 251-262) Similarly voice-control, history, antiquities
must be studied to some extent, but not so far as to
encroach on the time needed for practice in speaking
practice is the important tliing.
:
:
—
:
A
;
—
xviii
INTRODUCTION
263-265) Crassus hints that Antonius has only
his skill in refutation, and requests
to set out his own view of the matter in the next
(§§
been displaying
him
—
day's debate.
'
Book
II
(§§1-11)
Introduction
:
Crassus
and
Antonius were not unlearned, as is usually supposed ;
such eloquence as theirs must have been based on
The dialogue following will constitute
wide study.
a treatise on rhetoric based on more practical experience than that possessed by previous authors.
Catulus and
(§§ 12-27) The second day's debate.
Caesar arrive, and after some conversation about the
employment of leisure, Antonius begins to state his
own case. (§§ 28-38) He says that oratory cannot be
^made into a science, but some rules for speakers can
be derived from observation and experience oratory
\covers all good speaking and all subjects. (§§ 39-73)
He proceeds to consider the proper sphere of rhetoric.
nor does
Demonstratipn^needs no special_rules
history^he gives a survey orthe chief Greek hisThe rhetoricians formulate no rules for
torians.
writing history, nor for the other forms of literature
that require eloquence. The same is true of the
discussion of abstract subjects, for which no rules of
Any student who has mastered
style are needed.
the more difficult problems will need no directions as
Forensic oratory is really the
to the easier ones.
most difficult kind of oratory.
illustrating the
(§§ 74-89) Catulus tells a story
\ ))
^ Muselessness of theory without practical experience.
Antonius criticizes some superfluous or misleading
;
)
;
The first requisite is natural endowment, as the instance of Sulpicius shows. (§§ 90-98)
There must be constant practice, largely in writing,
rules of rhetoric.
xix
INTRODUCTION
—
a good model being chosen to copy the Greek schools
of oratory are enumerated. But men of originality
can dispense with a model. (§§ 99-113) To master
first of all the facts of the case will at once make clear
the point at issue, which will be either one of fact or
of nature or of definition. (§§ 114-151) The facts are
estabhshed by evidence or by argument. The handling of these methods needs practice.
Antonius
ofFers to treat of the invention of arguments, but on
request consents to deal with the method of stating
them. The case should be considered under some
general proposition (locus) ; it is a mistake to labour
the distinction between general propositions and
particular instances, since the vast majority of
cases can all be brought under a few general heads.
The sources of arguments for deahng with these
should be famiUar by nature, theory and particularly
study.
(§§ 152-161) Catulus says that this agrees largely
with Aristotle.
He develops the Roman attitude
to philosophy.
Antonius holds that the Stoic system
is of no use to the orator, but he praises the acuteness
of Aristotle and the dialectic of Carneades.
topics '—but for
(§§ 162-177) The doctrine of
this purpose attention and natural acumen, together
with care for variety, will nearly suffice. (§§ 178-184)
It is important to win the favour of the audience ;
modes of doing this. (§§ 185-216) It is also important
these the
to inspire them with suitable emotions
speaker must himself feel instances from Antonius's
own career. But in some cases to excite emotion
is a mistake ; and when done it must be done in the
proper manner, and without exaggeration or hurry,
and interspersed with conciliatory passages. Argu'
—
;
INTRODUCTION
ments must be met by argument, and appeals to
emotion by exciting the opposite emotion.
It is of two
(§§ 217-234) Caesar discusses wit.
kinds
it cannot be taught ; its efFectiveness illusrules for its
trated from speeches of Crassus
;
;
its
The laughable
—
nature
;
origin the unseemly, treated in a neat style
;
criticism.
(§§
235-247)
its
where apphcable and where not (a) wit of form and
illustrations of the latter.
(6) wit of matter
(§§ 248263) (a) Seven kinds of verbal wit, defined and illustrated.
(§§ 264-290) (6) Nine kinds of wit of thought,
subdivided and illustrated. (§§ 291-332) Antonius
resumes from § 216, and discusses his own and his
//opponent's case. Arrangement put your strongest
—
;
:
s^argument
Rules for
at the beginning or at the end.
the various parts of a speech. (§§ 333-340) Speeches
of advice derive effect from the character of the
speaker and his political experience ; errors to avoid.
praise
(§§ 341-349) Panegyric, Greek masters of ;
should be given to the subject's character as displayed
in his attitude towards circumstances ; compare him
with illustrious examples.
(§§ 350-367) Antonius sketches a memoria iechnicaf
originating from observations made by Simonides.
The debate is adjourned to the afternoon.
Book III (§§ 1-10) Death of Crassus soon after
he had deUvered an important speech. Fate of the
other characters in this dialogue.
(§§ 17-24) The discussion resumed : Crassus begins
Style is not really separable
his exposition of style.
from matter. (§§ 25-37) Our senses differ, but each
gives pleasure ; and the same is the case with works
of art. Similarly various styles of oratory are all
admirable.
xxi
INTRODUCTION
The
first requisite is pure and clear
53-96) Ornate style, its true conception
and proper compass. (§§ 56-73) The relation of
eloquence to philosophy, especially in the postSocratic schools.
(§§ 97-148) Embellishment should
(§§
38-52)
diction.
(§§
be produced by continuous grace, avoiding extravagance, studying light and shade, and based on
general culture. (§§ 149-208) Detailed theory of the
omate style choice of words their combination,
in point of order and rhythm
figures of speech.
(§§ 208-227) Oratory must be adapted to the occasion.
Delivery (actio), including gesture and voice.
Conclusion Hortensius complimented.
:
;
;
:
Editions
De
Oratore was
printed at Subiaco about 1465,
first book printed in Italy) and
three other Italian editions followed in fifteen years.
All subsequent editions have been supplanted by
that of A. S. Wilkins, Oxford, 1892, the earhest containing a commentary in Enghsh. Its introduction
is a mine of information on the text and contents of
the book and the earlier history of rhetoric in Greece
(in fact it
first
was the very
and Rome.
Text
The present edition has been printed from the text
of V. Betolaud, Paris, no date.
few corrections
have been introduced from the text and notes of
Wilkins, and a few variants are noted at the foot
of the page.
For an exhaustive account of the mss. the student
A
xxii
INTRODUCTION
can refer to Wilkins. It may be noted here that the
accepted text is based on two primary mss. of the
ninth century and one of the tenth, which clearly
come from a single not very much older copy. Though
fuU of obvious errors in copying, they are free from
all three however are mutidehberate corrections
lated, and they leave considerable gaps in the text
unattested. The same is the case with a more
numerous second set, of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, which are manifestly based on one or other
of the above or on their common source, A third set,
but they
all of a later date, give a complete text
do not show the same amount of agreement as the
two earlier groups, and also their value is even more
reduced by the probabihty that they have been
largely corrupted by conjectural emendation.
;
;
XXUI
LIST OF CICEROS
WORKS
SHOWING THEIR DIVISION INTO
VOLUMES IN THIS
EDITION
VOLUME
A. Rhetorical Treatises.
I.
II.
[Cicero], Rhetorica
De
De
5
Volumes
ad Herennimn
Inventione
Optiino Genere Oratorum
Topica
III.
De
Oratore, Books I-II
IV.
De
De
Oratore,
Book
III
Fato
Paradoxa Stoicorum
De
Partitione Oratoria
V. Brutus
Orator
XXV
LIST OF CICERCS
WORKS
VOLUME
B. OrATIONS.
10 VOLUMES
VI. Pro Quinctio
Pro Roscio Amerino
Pro Roscio Comoedo
De Lege
VII.
RuUum
Agraria Contra
The Verrine Orations
I
I-III
;
In Q. Caecilium
VIII.
IX.
In C. Verrem Actio
I
In C. Verrem Actio
II,
Books
I-II
The Verrine Orations II
In C. Verrem Actio II, Books III-V
:
De
Imperio Cn. Pompei (Pro Lege Manilia)
Pro Caecina
Pro Cluentio
Pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo
X. In Catilinam I-IV
Pro Murena
Pro SuUa
Pro Flacco
XI. Pro Archia
Post Reditum in Senatu
Post Reditum ad Quirites
LIST OF CICERCS
WORKS
VOLOME
De Domo Sua
De Haruspicum
Responsis
Pro Cn. Plancio
XII ProSestio
In Vatinium
XIII. Pro CaeUo
De
Provinciis Consularibus
Pro Balbo
XIV. Pro Milone
In Pisonem
Pro Scauro
Pro Fonteio
Pro Rabirio Postumo
Pro Marcello
Pro Ligario
Pro Rege Deiotaro
XV.
Philippics
I-XIV
C. Philosophical Treatises.
6 Volumes
XVI. De Re Publica
De
Legibus
XVII. De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum
xxvii
LIST OF CICERO'S
WORKS
VOLUME
XVIII. Tusculan Disputations
XIX. De Natura Deorum
Academica I and II
XX. Cato Maior de Senectute
Laelius de Amicitia
De
XXI. De
Divinatione
Officiis
D. LeTTERS.
7 VOLUMES
XXII. Letters to Atticus, Books I-VI
XXIII. Letters to Atticus, Books VII-XI
XXIV. Letters
XXV.
XXVI.
to Atticus,
Books XII-XVI
Letters to His Friends, Books I-VI
Letters to His Friends, Books VII-XII
XXVII. Letters
to His Friends, Books
XIII-XVI
XXVIII. Letters to His Brother Quintus
Letters to Brutus
Commentariolum
Petitionis
Epistula ad Octavianum
xxviii
DE ORATORE
BOOKS
I,
II
M.
TULLI CICERONIS
AD QUINTUM FRATREM
DIALOGI TRES
DE ORATORE
DIALOGUS SEU LIBER PRIMUS
1
I. Cogitanti mihi saepenumero, et memoria vetera
repetenti, perbeati fuisse, Quinte frater, illi videri
solent, qui in optima republica, cum et honoribus, et
rerum gestarum gloria florerent, eum vitae cursxmi
tenere potuerunt, ut vel in negotio sine periculo, vel
in otio cum dignitate esse possent.
Ac fuit quidem,
cum mihi quoque initium requiescendi, atque aniad utriusque nostrum praeclara studia referendi, fore iustum et prope ab omnibus con-
mum
rerum
arbitrarer, si infinitus forensium
et ambitionis occupatio, decursu honorum,
Quam spem cogi2 etiam aetatis flexu, constitisset.
tationum et consiliorum meorum, cum graves communium temporum, tum varii nostri casus fefellerunt.
cessum
labor,
The metaphors are borrowed from the Circus. Decurau
honorum = decursis honoribus Cicero had been successively
augur, quaestor, aedile, praetor, consul and proconsul.
*•
:
8
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
ON
THE MAKING OF AN ORATOR
IN THREE BOOKS
ADDRESSED TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS
BOOK THE FIRST
When, as often happens, brother Quintus, I
think over and recall the days of old, those men
always seem to me to have been singularly happy
who, with the State at her best, and while enjoying
high distinctions and the fame of their achievements,
were able to maintain such a course of life that they
could either engage in activity that involved no risk
And time was when I
or enjoy a dignified repose.
used to imagine that I too should become entitled,
with wellnigh universal approval, to some opportunity of leisure and of again directing my mind to
the sublime pursuits beloved of us both, when once,
the career of office complete and life too taking the
turn towards its close," the endless toil of pubHc speaking and the business of canvassing should have come
The hopes so born of my thoughts
2 to a standstill.
and plans have been cheated, ahke by the disastrous
times of public peril and by my manifold personal
1 I.
introduotion.
The
cumstances.
CICERO
Nam
qui
locus
quietis
et
tranquillitatis
plenis-
simus fore videbatur, in eo maximae moles molestiarum, et turbulentissimae tempestates exstiterunt.
Neque vero nobis cupientibus atque exoptantibus
fructus otii datus est ad eas artes, quibus a
pueris dediti fuimus, celebrandas, inter nosque
Nam prima aetate incidimus in ipsam
3 recolendas.
perturbationem disciplinae veteris ; et consulatu
devenimus in medium rerum omnium certamen
atque discrimen et hoc tempus omne post consula;
tum obiecimus
per nos a communi
redundarunt. Sed
tamen in his vel asperitatibus rerum, vel angustiis
temporis, obsequar studiis nostris ; et, quantum mihi
vel fraus inimicorum, vel causae amicorum, vel
respublica tribuet otii, ad scribendum potissimum
Tibi vero, frater, neque hortanti deero,
4 conferam.
eis fluctibus, qui,
peste depulsi, in
6
nosmet
ipsos
neque roganti, nam neque auctoritate quisquam
apud me plus valere te potest, neque voluntate.
II. Ac
mihi repetenda est veteris cuiusdam
memoriae non sane satis explicata recordatio, sed,
ut arbitror, apta ad id, quod requiris, ut cognoscas
quae viri omnium eloquentissimi clarissimique senserint de omni ratione dicendi.
Vis enim, ut mihi
saepe dixisti, quoniam quae pueris aut adolescentulis
nobis ex commentariolis nostris inchoata ac rudia
exciderunt, vix hac aetate digna, et hoc usu,
quem
" Cicero was about eightecn years old at the outbreak of
the civll strife between Marius and Sulla.
' The reference is to the juvenile De InventioM of Cicero,
in
two books.
DE ORATORE,
I.
i.
2—
ii.
5
For the time of life which promised
misfortunes.
to be fullest of quiet and peace proved to be that
during which the greatest volume of vexations and the
most turbulent tempests arose. And notwithstanding my desire, and indeed my profound longing, no
enjoyment of leisure was granted me, for the cultivation and renewed pursuit, in your company, of those
arts to which from boyhood you and I have been
For in my early years" I came just upon
3 devoted.
the days when the old order was overthrown then
by my consulship I was drawn into the midst of
a universal struggle and crisis, and my whole time
ever since that consulship I have spent in stemming
those billows which, stayed by my efForts from ruining
the nation, rolled in a flood upon myself. But none
the less, though events are thus harassing and my
time so restricted, I will hearken to the call of our
studies, and every moment of leisure allowed me by
the perfidy of my enemies, the advocacy of my friends
and my political duties, I vdll dedicate first and foreAnd when you, brother, exhort
4 most to writing.
and request me, I will not fail you, for no man's
authority or wish can have greater weight with me
than yours.
II. And now I must bring back to mind the recol- Educationof
*^® »»tor.
lection of an old story, not, I admit, as clear in detail
as it might be, but, to my thinking, suited to what
you ask so that you may learn what men renowned
above all others for eloquence have thought about
For it is your wish, as
5 the whole subject of oratory,
you have often told me, that since the unfinished
and crude essays,^ which shpped out of the notebooks
of my boyhood, or rather of my youth, are hardly
worthy of my present time of Ufe and of my experi;
;
—
5
CICERO
ex
causis,
quas diximus, tot tantisque consecuti
sumus, aliquid eisdem de rebus politius a nobis perfectiusque proferri
a
me
:
solesque
nonnunquam hac de
hominum
prudentissimorum
contineri statuam
;
tu
eloquentiam
artibus
autem
illam
doctrinae segregandam putes, et in
re
quod ego
in disputationibus nostris dissentire,
ab elegantia
quodam
ingenii
atque exercitationis genere ponendam.
Ac
6
mihi quidem saepenumero in
summos homines,
ac summis ingeniis praeditos intuenti, quaerendum
esse visiun est, quid esset, cur plures in
artibus,
quam
in dicendo admirabiles
Nam, quocumque
te
omnibus
exstitissent.
animo et cogitatione converteris,
permultos excellentes in quoque genere videbis, non
7
mediocrium
enim
artiimi, sed
est, qui, si clarorimi
gestarum vel
utilitate vel
non anteponat
oratori
prope maximarum.
hominum
Quis
scientiam rerum
magnitudine metiri
imperatorem
velit,
Quis autem
?
dubitet, quin belli duces praestantissimos ex hac
civitate
paene innmnerabiles,
8 cellentes vix
in dicendo
paucos proferre possimus
consilio ac sapientia qui regere ac
?
una
autem ex-
lam
vero,
gubernare rem-
publicam possent, multi nostra, plures patrum memoria, atque etiam
perdiu
6
nulli,
vix
maiorum
autem
exstiterunt,
singulis
cum
boni
aetatibus singuli
7
8
—
DE ORATORE,
—
I.
ii.
5-8
ence gained from the numerous and grave causes in
which I have been engaged I should pubhsh something more polished and complete on these same
topics
and generally you disagree with me, in our
occasional discussions of this subject, because I hold
that eloquence is dependent upon the trained skill
of highly educated men, while you consider that it
must be separated from the refinements of learning
and made to depend on a sort of natural talent and
on practice.
And for my own part, when, as has often happened, Great
orators
I have been contemplating men of the highest emin- °™^ rare.
ence and endowed with the highest abilities, it has
seemed to me to be a matter for inquiry, why it was
that more of them should have gained outstanding
renown in all other pursuits, than have done so in
oratory.
For in whatever direction you turn your
mind and thoughts, you will find very many excelling
in every kind, not merely of ordinary arts, but of such
;
as are aknost the greatest.
Who,
for instance, in
seeking to measure the understanding possessed by
illustrious men, whether by the usefulness or the
grandeur of their achievements, would not place the
general above the orator ? Yet who could doubt
that, from this country alone, we could cite almost
innumerable examples of leaders in war of the
greatest distinction, but of men excelhng in oratory
a mere handful ? Nay further, among the men who
by their counsel and wisdom could control and direct
the hehn of state, many have stood out in our o^vn
day, and still more in the history of our fathers and
even of our remoter ancestors, and yet through
lengthy ages no good orator is to be found, and in
each successive generation hardly a single tolerable
7
CICERO
tolerabiles oratores invenirentur.
Ac, ne quis forte
cum aliis studiis, quae reconditis in artibus, atque in
quadam varietate litterarum versentur, magis hanc
dicendi rationem, quam cum imperatoris laude, aut
cum boni senatoris prudentia comparandam putet,
convertat animmn ad ea ipsa artium genera, circumsic
spiciatque, qui in eis floruerint, quamque multi
:
facillime,
quanta
oratorum
sit
semperque
fuerit
paucitas, iudicabit.
9
III. Neque enim te fugit, artium omnium laudatarum procreatricem quamdam, et quasi parentem
eam, quam <^iXo(ro<^iav Graeci vocant, ab hominibus
in qua difficile est enumerare,
doctissimis iudicari
quot viri, quanta scientia, quantaque in suis studiis
varietate et copia fuerint, qui non una aliqua in
;
re
separatim elaborarint, sed omnia, quaecumque
possent, vel scientiae pervestigatione, vel disserendi
Quis ignorat, ei, qui
comprehenderint.
mathematici vocantur, quanta in obscuritate rerum,
et quam recondita in arte, et multiplici subtihque
versentur ? quo tamen in genere ita multi perfecti
homines exstiterunt, ut nemo fere studuisse ei
scientiae vehementius videatur, quin, quod voluerit,
consecutus sit. Quis musicis, quis huic studio htterarum, quod profitentur ei, qui granunatici vocantur,
penitus se dedidit, quin omnem illarum artium paene
10 ratione,
infinitam
11
vim et materiam
scientiae
cogitatione
comprehenderit ?
Vere mihi hoc videor esse dicturus, ex omnibus
8
eis,
DE ORATORE,
I.
ii.
8—
iii.
11
one. And that no one may think that other pursuits,
which have to do with abstruse branches of study,
and what I may call the varied field of learning,
should be compared with this art of oratory, rather
than the merits of a commander or the wisdom of
a statesman-hke senator, let him turn his attention
to these very kinds of art, and look around to see
who, and how many, have been distinguished therein
in this way he will most readily judge how scarce
orators are now, and ever have been.
III. For indeed you cannot fail to remember that Bminencein
the most learned men hold what the Greeks call rare.^'*^^
philosophy to be the creator and mother, as it
were, of all the reputable arts, and yet in this
field of philosophy it is difficult to count how many
men there have been, eminent for their learning and
for the variety and extent of their studies, men whose
efforts were devoted, not to one separate branch of
study, but who have mastered everything they could
whether by scientific investigation or by the methods
of dialectic. Who does not know, as regards the
so-called mathematicians, what very obscure subjects, and how abstruse, manifold, and exact an art
they are engaged in ? Yet in this pursuit so many
men have displayed outstanding excellence, that
hardly one seems to have worked in real earnest at
this branch of knowledge without attaining the object
of his desire. Who has devoted himself wholly to
the cult of the Muses, or to this study of literature,
which is professed by those who are known as men of
letters, without bringing within the compass of his
knowledge and observation the almost boundless
range and subject-matter of those arts ?
I think I shall be right in affirming this, that out of
B
9
;
9
*
'
•
10
11
CICERO
qui in harum artium studiis liberalissimis sint doctrinisque versati,minimam copiam poetarum et oratorum
egregiorum exstitisse, atque in hoc ipso numero, in
quo perraro exoritur aliquis excellens, si diligenter, et
ex nostrorum, et ex Graecorum copia comparare voles,
multo tamen pauciores oratores, quam poetae boni
12 reperientur. Quod hoc etiam mirabilius debet videri,
quia ceterarum artium studia fere reconditis atque
dicendi autem omnis
abditis e fontibus hauriuntur
ratio in medio posita, conmiuni quodam in usu, atque
in hominum more et sermone versatur
ut in ceteris
id maxime excellat, quod longissime sit ab imperitorum intellegentia sensuque disiunctum, in dicendo
autem vitium vel maximum sit a vulgari genere
orationis, atque a consuetudine communis sensus
;
:
abhorrere.
Ac ne
quidem vere
aut plures
maiore delectatione,
aut spe uberiore, aut praemiis ad perdiscendum
ampUoribus commoveri. Atque ut omittam Graeciam, quae semper eloquentiae princeps esse voluit,
atque illas omnium doctrinarum inventrices Athenas,
in quibus simima dicendi vis et inventa est et perfecta
in hac ipsa civitate profecto nulla unquam
vehementius, quam eloquentiae studia viguerunt.
Nam posteaquam, imperio omnium gentium con14
stituto, diuturnitas pacis otium confirmavit, nemo
fere laudis cupidus adolescens non sibi ad dicendum
13
IV.
ceteris
illud
dici potest,
artibus inservire, aut
:
" The traditional reading omits the words et oratorum, but
their insertion seems necessary to the sense, and is supported
by O. Hense, Hamecker, Wilkins and
10
Stangl.
DE ORATORE,
I.
iii.
11—iv.
14
all those who have been engaged in the infinitely
copious studies and learning pertaining to these arts,
the smallest number of distinguished men is found
among poets and orators " and even in this small
number within which a man of excellence very
;
—
—
if you will make a careful comparison of our own national supply and that of Greece,
far fewer good orators will be found even than
And this should seem even more mar12 good poets.
vellous because the subjects of the other arts are
derived as a rule from hidden and remote sources,
while the whole art of oratory hes open to the
view, and is concerned in some measure with the
common practice, custom, and speech of mankind,
so that, whereas in all other arts that is most
excellent which is farthest removed from the understanding and mental capacity of the untrained, in
oratory the very cardinal sin is to depart from the
language of everyday hfe, and the usage approved
by the sense of the community.
IV. And yet it cannot truly be said either that oratory an
13
more men devote themselves to the other arts, or ^**™^*'^^
that those who do so are stimulated to close study study.
by greater pleasure, higher hopes, or more splendid
rewards. In fact, to say nothing of Greece, which
has ever claimed the leading part in eloquence, and
of Athens, that discoverer of all learning, where
the supreme power of oratory was both invented
and perfected, in this city of our own assuredly no
studies have ever had a more vigorous hfe than
those having to do with the art of speaking.
For as soon as our world-empire had been estab14
hshed, and an enduring peace had assured us leisure,
there was hardly a youth, athirst for fame, who did
rarely emerges
,.
11
CICERO
omni enitendum
Ac primo quidem
neque exercitationis ullam
viam, neque aliquod praeceptum artis esse arbitrarentur, tantum, quantum ingenio et cogitatione
studio
putavit.
totius rationis ignari, qui
poterant,
consequebantur.
Post
oratoribus Graecis, cognitisque
hibitisque
15
doctoribus,
autem,
eorum
incredibili
auditis
litteris,
quodam
ad-
nostri
homines dicendi studio flagraverunt. Excitabat eos
magnitudo et varietas, multitudoque in omni genere
causarum, ut ad eam doctrinam, quam suo quisque
studio assecutus esset, adiungeretur usus frequens,
qui omnium magistrorum praecepta superaret. Erant
autem huic studio maxima, quae nunc quoque
sunt,
exposita praemia, vel ad gratiam, vel ad opes, vel
ad dignitatem. Ingenia vero (ut multis rebus possu-
mus
16
iudicare) nostronmi hominum multum ceteris
hominibus omnium gentium praestiterunt. Quibus
de causis, quis non iure miretur, ex omni memoria
aetatum, temporum, civitatum, tam exiguum orato-
rum numerum
inveniri
?
Sed nimirum maius est hoc quiddam, quam homines opinantur, et pluribus ex artibus studiisque
collectum.
V. Quis enim aliud, in
tudine,
maxima discentium
summa magistrorum
hominum
ingeniis, infinita
multi-
copia, praestantissimis
causarum varietate, am-
plissimis eloquentiae propositis praemiis, esse causae
putet, nisi rei
quamdam
17 ac difficultatem ?
13
incredibilem magnitudinem,
Est enim et scientia comprehen-
—
DE ORATORE,
not
deem
it his
duty to
At
I.
iv.
14—v.
strive with
17
might and main
indeed, in their complete
ignorance of method, since they thought there was no
definite course of training or any rules of art, they
used to attain what skill they could by means of their
natural abiUty and of reflection. But later, having
heard the Greek orators, gained acquaintance with
their literature and called in Greek teachers, our
people were fired with a really incredible enthusiThe importance, variety, and
1.5 asm for eloquence.
frequency of current suits of all sorts aroused them
so effectually, that, to the learning which each man
had acquired by his own efforts, plenty of practice was
added, as being better than the maxims of all the
masters. In those days too, as at present, the prizes
open to this study were supreme, in the way of
popularity, wealth, and reputation ahke.
As for
ability again
there are many things to show it
our fellow-countrymen have far excelled the men of
And considering all this, who
16 every other race.
would not rightly marvel that, in all the long record
of ages, times, and states, so small a number of
after eloquence.
first
—
is to be found ?
But the truth is that this oratory is a greater thing,
and has its sources in more arts and branches of study,
orators
17
than people suppose.
V. For,where the number of students is verygreat, its wide
the supply of masters of the very best, the quahty of thrstudent'natural ability outstanding, the variety of issues unhmited, the prizes open to eloquence exceedingly
splendid, what else could anyone think to be the cause,
unless it be the really incredible vastness and difficulty of the subject ? To begin with, a knowledge of
very many matters must be grasped, without which
13
CICERO
denda rerum plurimarum,
bilitas
sine
qua verborum
inanis atque irridenda est
;
volu-
et ipsa oratio
conformanda, non solum electione, sed etiam constructione verborum
et omnes animorum motus,
quos hominum generi rerum natura tribuit, penitus
pernoscendi
quod omnis vis ratioque dicendi in
;
;
eorum, qui audiunt, mentibus, aut sedandis, aut
excitandis expromenda est. Accedat eodem oportet
lepos
quidam facetiaeque,
celeritasque et brevitas
et eruditio libero digna,
et respondendi, et laces-
sendi, subtili venustate, atque urbanitate coniuncta.
18
Tenenda praeterea est omnis antiquitas, exemplorumque vis neque legum, aut iuris civilis scientia
;
est.
Nam quid ego de actione ipsa plura
dicam ? quae motu corporis, quae gestu, quae vultu,
quae vocis conformatione ac varietate moderanda
quae sola per se ipsa quanta sit, histrionum
est
levis ars et scena declarat
in qua cum omnes in
oris, et vocis, et motus moderatione elaborent, quis
neglegenda
;
:
ignorat, quam pauci sint, fuerintque, quos animo
aequo spectare possimus ? Quid dicam de thesauro
rerum omnium, memoria ? quae nisi custos inventis
cogitatisque rebus et verbis adhibeatur, intellegimus,
omnia, etiam
si
praeclarissima fuerint in oratore,
peritura.
Quam
19
ob rem mirari desinamus, quae causa sit
cum ex eis rebus universis
eloquentium paucitatis,
eloquentia constet, quibus in singulis elaborare per-
14
DE ORATORE,
I.
v.
17-19
oratory is but an empty and ridiculous swirl of verbiage and the distinctive style has to be formed, not
only by the choice of words, but also by the arrangement of the same and all the mental emotions, with
which nature has endowed the human race, are to be
intimately understood, because it is in calming or kindhng the feehngs of the audience that the full power
and science of oratory are to be brought into play. To
this there should be added a certain humour, flashes
of wit, the culture befitting a gentleman, and readiness and terseness ahke in repelhng and in deUvering
the attack, the whole being combined with a dehcate
Further, the complete history
18 charm and urbanity.
of the past and a store of precedents must be retained
in the memory, nor may a knowledge of statute law
and our national law in general be omitted. And
why should I go on to describe the speaker's dehvery ?
That needs to be controlled by bodily carriage,
gesture, play of features and changing intonation of
voice
and how important that is wholly by itself,
the actor's trivial art and the stage proclaim
for
there, although all are labouring to regulate the
expression, the voice, and the movements of the
body, everyone knows how few actors there are, or
ever have been, whom we could bear to watch
What need to speak of that universal treasure-house
the memory ? Unless this faculty be placed in charge
of the ideas and phrases which have been thought out
and well weighed, even though as conceived by the
orator they were of the highest excellence, we know
that they will all be wasted.
Let us therefore cease to wonder what may be the
19
cause of the rarity of orators, since oratory is the
result of a whole number of things, in any one of which
15
:
;
;
;
!
CICERO
magnum
est
hortemurque potius
;
liberos nostros,
quorum gloria nobis et dignitas cara est,
ut animo rei magnitudinem complectantur, neque eis
ceterosque,
aut praeceptis, aut magistris, aut exercitationibus,
quibus utuntur omnes, sed
aliis
quod expetunt, consequi posse
VI. Ac,
20
mea quidem
omni laude cumulatus
magnarum
sententia,
;
quae,
nisi
in
redundet
subest res ab oratore
quamdam habet
elocu-
Neque vero ego hoc
paene puerilem.
tantum oneris imponam
consecutus.
efflorescat et
percepta et cognita, inanem
21 tionem, et
nemo poterit esse
omnium rerum
scientiam
Etenim ex rerum cognitione
oportet oratio
id,
orator, nisi erit
artium
atque
quibusdam, se
confidant.
nostris praesertim oratoribus,
hac tanta occupatione urbis ac
vitae, nihil ut eis
quanquam
vis oratoris pro-
putem Hcere
nescire
:
fessioque ipsa bene dicendi, hoc suscipere ac poUiceri
videtur, ut
omni de
re,
quaecumque
sit
proposita, ab
22 eo ornate copioseque dicatur.
Sed quia non dubito,
immensum
infinitumque videatur,
quin hoc plerisque
et
quod Graecos homines non solum ingenio
doctrina,
sed
partitionem
etiam
quamdam
otio
studioque
et
abundantes,
artium fecisse video, neque in
universo genere singulos elaborasse, sed seposuisse
a ceteris dictionibus
eam partem
dicendi, quae in
forensibus disceptationibus iudiciorum, aut deUbera-
16
—
DE ORATORE,
I.
v.
19—vi.
22
is a great achievement, and let us rather
exhort our children, and the others whose fame and
repute are dear to us, to form a true understanding
of the greatness of their task, and not to beheve that
they can gain their coveted object by rehance on the
rules or teachers or methods of practice employed by
everybody, but to rest assured that they can do this
by the help of certain other means.
VI. And indeed in my opinion, no man can be an even if oniy
20
orator complete in all points of merit, who has not prlcti^t/"'^
attained a knowledge of all important subjects and ptirposes, as
arts.
For it is from knowledge that oratory must ^ °™
derive its beauty and fullness, and unless there is such
knowledge, well-grasped and comprehended by the
speaker, there must be something empty and ahnost
Not that I am going to
21 childish in the utterance.
lay so heavy a burden upon orators least of all upon
our own, amid all the distractions of hfe in Rome
as to hold that there is nothing of which it is permissible for them to be ignorant, although the
significance of the term " orator," and the mere act
of professing eloquence, seem to undertake and to
promise that every subject whatsoever, proposed to
an orator, will be treated by him with both distincBut being assured that to most
22 tion and knowledge.
men this appears a vast and indeed hmitless enterprise, and perceiving that the Greeks, men not only
abounding in genius and learning, but also amply
endowed with leisure and the love of study, have
aheady made a sort of division of the arts, nor did
every student of theirs work over the whole field
by himself, but they separated from other uses of
speech that portion of oratory which is concerned
with the public discussions of the law-courts and of
to succeed
'
—
—
17
;
CICERO
tionum versaretur, et id unum genus oratorireliquisse
non complectar in his libris amplius, quam quod huic
multum disputata, summorum
hominum prope consensu est tributum repetamque,
generi, re quaesita et
23
;
non
ab
doctrinae
incunabulis
nostrae
veteris
puerilisque
quemdam ordinem
praeceptorum, sed ea,
quae quondam accepi in nostrorum hominum eloquentissimorum et omni dignitate principum, disputatione esse versata.
quae Graeci, dicendi
Non quod
illa
contemnam,
artifices et doctores, reliquerunt;
sed, cum illa pateant in promptuque sint omnibus,
neque ea interpretatione mea aut ornatius explicari,
aut planius exprimi possint, dabis hanc veniam, mi
frater, ut opinor, ut
eorum, quibus
summa
dicendi
laus a nostris hominibus concessa est, auctoritatem
Graecis anteponam.
VII.
24
Cum
igitur
vehementius
inveheretur
causam principum consul Philippus, Drusique
in
tri-
bunatus, pro Senatus auctoritate susceptus, infringi
iam debilitarique videretur
dici mihi memini,
ludorum Romanorum diebus, L. Crassum, quasi
;
coUigendi sui causa, se in Tusculaniun contulisse
venisse eodem, socer eius qui fuerat, Q.
dicebatur, et
;
Mucius
M. Antonius, homo et consiliorum in
summa cum Crasso familiaritate
Exierant autem cum ipso Crasso adole-
republica socius, et
26 coniunctus.
"
For Philippus and Drusus see Index, and
names
18
for the other
referred to in this chapter see Introduction.
—
DE ORATORE,
I.
vi.
22—vii.
25
debate, and left that branch only to the orator I
shall not include in this work more than has been
assigned to this type of oratory by the all but unanimous judgement of the most eminent men, after
23 investigation and long argument of the matter ; nor Diaiogno
shall I recall, from the cradle of our boyish learn- pS^fOT"^
ing of days gone by, a long string of precepts, the present
'*"
but I shall repeat the things I heard of as once ^*^
handled in a discussion between men who were the
most eloquent of our nation, and of the highest rank
Not that I despise what
in distinction of every kind.
the Greek craftsmen and teachers of oratory have
left us but that is open to the view and ready to the
hand of every man, nor could it be more happily
;
set forth or more clearly expounded by any interpretations of my own, so that you will forgive me,
brother mine, I do beheve, if I prefer to Greek instruction the authoritative judgement of those to
whom the highest honours in eloquence have been
24
awarded by our own fellow-countrymen.
VII. I remember then being told how, at the time
when Philippus," though consul, was furiously assailing the policy of the leading men, and the tribuneship of Drusus, undertaken in support of the
power of the Senate, had begun to show symptoms
of shock and weakness, Lucius Crassus, on the plea
of recruiting his energies, betook himself during
days of the Roman Games to his seat at
Tusculum, whither (as the story went) there came
Quintus Mucius, once his father-in-law, and Marcus
the
a partner in the poUtical designs of
Crassus, and a man united with him in the closest
There had also gone out of town, in the
25 intimacy.
company of Crassus, two young men who were very
Antonius,
19
Date, Bceno,
^^^ persons.
:
CICERO
scentes duo, Drusi
maxime
magnam tum spem
collocarant, C.
familiares, et in quibus
maiores natu dignitatis suae
tum tribunatum
Cotta, qui
eum
petebat, et P. Sulpicius, qui deinceps
26
tum
bus
petiturus putabatur.
illis,
Hi primo die de tempori-
deque universa republica, quam ob causam
venerant,
tempus
multum
inter
usque ad extremum
se
Quo quidem
diei collocuti sunt.
multa divinitus a
tribus
sermone
in
consularibus
illis
Cotta
commemorata narrabat
ut nihil incidisset postea civitati mali, quod non impendere illi
tanto ante vidissent
eo autem omni sermone condeplorata et
27
plebis
magistra-
;
;
humanitatem
fecto,
tantam
lauti
accubuissent, toUeretur omnis
tristitia
in Crasso
sermonis
;
fuisse, ut,
illa
cum
superioris
eaque esset in homine iucunditas,
et tantus in iocando lepos, ut dies inter eos Curiae
fuisse videretur,
28
convivium Tusculani.
Postero autem die,
cum
maiores natu satis
illi
quiessent, et in ambulationem
ventum
tum Scaevolam, duobus spatiis tribusve
esset
:
dicebat
factis, dixisse
Cur non imitamur, Crasse, Socratem lUum, qui
in Phaedro Platonis
?
Nam me
est
haec tua platanus
admonuit, quae non minus ad opacandum hunc locum
patulis est difFusa ramis,
quam
illa,
cuius
umbram
secutus est Socrates, quae mihi videtur non
"
Phaedrus 229
a,
230
b.
tam
—
DE ORATORE,
I.
vii.
25-28
great friends of Drusus, and in whom the older
generation at that time reposed high hopes of their
maintaining the traditions of their order they were
Gaius Cotta, just then seeking the tribuneship of the
:
commons, and PubHus Sulpicius, who was thought
hkely to become a candidate for that magistracy in
This party, on the first day and
26 succession to him.
up to a very late hour, held long debate together,
concerning the crisis and the state of pohtics generally, which in fact had been the occasion of their
meeting. And Cotta recounted many things which
were spoken of in that discussion with deep regret by
the three speakers of consular rank, in such inspired
fashion that (in his words) no evil had since befallen
the community which those men, so long before, had
but (he would add)
27 not seen to be hanging over it
when the colloquy was completely finished, so exquisite was the urbanity displayed by Crassus, that,
as soon as they had bathed and settled down to table,
the melancholy turn taken by the earher discussion
was wholly banished, and such was the man's pleasantness and so great the charm of his humour that it
seemed as though a day in the Senate-house was
closing with supper at Tusculum.
28
Then Cotta went on to say how on the morrow, when
those older men had rested sufficiently and everyone
had come into the garden-walk, Scaevola, after taking
two or three turns, observed, " Crassus, why do we
not imitate Socrates as he appears in the Phaedrus
of Plato ? For your plane-tree has suggested this
comparison to my mind, casting as it does, with its
spreading branches, as deep a shade over this spot,
as that one cast whose shelter Socrates sought*»
which to me seems to owe its eminence less to the
;
'
21
CICERO
quae describitur, quam Platonis oratione
quod ille durissimis pedibus fecit, ut se
abiceret in herbam, atque ita illa, quae philosophi
*
ipsa acula/
crevisse
:
et,
divinitus ferunt esse dicta, loqueretur, id meis pedibus
29 certe concedi
est aequius.
vero commodius etiam
omnes
in eis sedibus,
;
Tum
Crassum
Immo
:
pulvinosque poposcisse, et
quae erant sub platano, con-
sedisse dicebat.
VIII. Ibi, ut ex pristino sermone relaxarentur
animi omnium, solebat Cotta narrare, Crassum ser30
monem quemdam de studio
cum ita esset exorsus, non
dicendi intulisse.
Qui
cohortandum Sulpicium et Cottam, sed magis utrumque coUaudandum
videri, quod tantam iam essent facultatem adepti,
ut non aequaUbus suis solum anteponerentur, sed
sibi
cum maioribus natu compararentur. Neque vero
mihi quidquam, inquit, praestabiHus videtur, quam
posse dicendo tenere hominum coetus, mentes
allicere, voluntates impellere
velit,
deducere.
maximeque
in
Haec una
pacatis
praecipue semper
31
Quid enim
floruit,
quo
res in
velit
unde autem
omni hbero populo,
;
tranquillisque
civitatibus,
semperque dominata
est.
tam admirabile, quam ex infinita
multitudine hominum exsistere unum, qui id, quod
est aut
omnibus natura
sit
facere possit
Aut tam iucundum cognitu atque
auditu,
?
quam
datum, vel
sapientibus
sententiis
verbis ornata oratio et poHta
22
solus, vel
?
cum
paucis
gravibusque
Aut tam
potens,
DE ORATORE,
I.
vii.
28—viii.
31
described by Plato than to the language
of his dialogue and what Socrates did, whose feet
were thoroughly hardened, when he threw himself
down on the grass and so began the talk which philosophers say was divine, such ease surely may more
" Nay,"
29 reasonably be conceded to my own feet."
answered Crassus, " but we will make things more
little rivulet
'
—
—
whereupon, according to Cotta, he
and they all sat down together
on the benches that were under the plane-tree.
VIII. In that place, as Cotta was fond of relating, xiiesfa: the
Crassus introduced a conversation on the pursuit of o7or°Ito^°to
oratory, with a view to reheving all minds from the society and
He began by saying *''^ ^***®*
30 discourse of the day before.
that Sulpicius and Cotta seemed not to need exhortation from him but rather commendation, seeing that
thus early they had acquired such skill as not merely
to be ranked above their equals in age, but to be comparable with their elders. " Moreover," he continued, " there is to my mind no more excellent thing
than the power, by means of oratory, to get a hold
on assemblies of men, win their good will, direct their
inclinations wherever the speaker wishes, or divert
them from whatever he wishes. In every free nation,
and most of all in communities which have attained
the enjoyment of peace and tranquiUity, this one art
has always flourished above the rest and ever reigned
For what is so marvellous as that, out of
31 supreme.
the innumerable company of mankind, a single being
should arise, who either alone or with a few others
can make effective a faculty bestowed by nature
upon every man ? Or what so pleasing to the understanding and the ear as a speech adorned and polished
with wise reflections and dignified language ? Or
23
comfortable
still,"
called for cushions,
CICERO
tamque magnificum, quam populi motus, iudicum
religiones, Senatus gravitatem, unius oratione con-
32 verti
Quid tam porro regium, tam
?
quam opem
munificum,
tam
ferre supplicibus, excitare
dare salutem, liberare periculis, retinere
afilictos,
homines in
quam
liberale,
civitate
?
Quid autem tam necessarium,
tenere semper arma, quibus vel tectus ipse
esse possis, vel provocare improbos,^ vel te ulcisci
lacessitus
Age
?
vero,
ne semper forum,
Curiamque meditere, quid
rostra,
subsellia,
esse potest in otio aut
quam
Hoc enim uno
iucundius, aut magis proprium humanitatis,
sermo facetus ac
nuUa
praestamus vel maxime
Quam
eo
in
feris,
?
quod coUoquimur
inter
quod exprimere dicendo sensa possumus.
ob rem quis hoc non iure miretur, summeque
et
nos,
33
in re rudis
elaborandum esse arbitretur,
homines maxime
ipsis antecellat ?
mus
;
quae
vis
bestiis praestent, in
Ut
vero iam ad
illa
ut,
quo uno
hoc hominibus
summa
venia-
aHa potuit aut dispersos homines unum
locum congregare, aut a fera agrestique vita ad
hunc humanum cultum civilemque deducere, aut,
in
iam
constitutis civitatibus, leges, iudicia, iura de-
34 scribere
*
?
improbos
Ac, ne plura, quae sunt paene innumerais the
reading of Friedrich /or the unintelligibU
integros o/ the better usa,
24
—
DE ORATORE,
I.
viii.
31-34
what achievement so mighty and glorious as that the
impulses of the crowd, the consciences of the judges,
the austerity of the Senate, should sufFer transforma32 tion through the eloquence of one man ?
What
function again is so kingly, so worthy of the free, so
generous, as to bring help to the supphant, to raise
up those that are cast down, to bestow security, to
set free from peril, to maintain men in their civil
rights ? What too is so indispensable as to have
always in your grasp weapons wherewith you can
defend yourself, or challenge the wicked man, or
when provoked take your revenge ?
" Nay more (not to have you for ever contemplating
public afFairs, the bench, the platform, and the Senatehouse), what in hours of ease can be a pleasanter thing
or one more characteristic of culture, than discourse
that is graceful and nowhere uninstructed ? For the
one point in which we have our very greatest advantage over the brute creation is that we hold converse
one with another, and can reproduce our thought in
Who therefore would not rightly admire this
33 word.
faculty, and deem it his duty to exert himself to the
utmost in this field, that by so doing he may surpass
men themselves in that particular respect wherein
To come, howchiefly men are superior to animals ?
ever, at length to the highest achievements of eloquence, what other power could have been strong
enough either to gather scattered humanity into one
place, or to lead it out of its brutish existence in the
wilderness up to our present condition of civilization
as men and as citizens, or, after the establishment of
social coramunities, to give shape to laws, tribunals,
And not to pursue any further
34 and civic rights ?
instances wellnigh countless as they are I will
25
—
;
CICERO
bilia,
consecter,
comprehendam
brevi
enim
sic
;
statuo, perfecti oratoris moderatione et sapientia
non
solimi ipsius dignitatem, sed et privatorum pluri-
morum,
maxime
et universae reipublicae salutem
Quam
contineri.
ob rem pergite, ut
studium, in
atque in id
scentes,
adole-
facitis,
quo
estis,
in-
cumbite, ut et vobis honori, et amicis utilitati, et
emolumento
reipublicae
IX.
35
Tum
esse possitis.
Scaevola comiter, ut solebat
Cetera,
:
inquit, assentior Crasso, ne aut de C. Laelii, soceri
mei, aut de huius, generi, aut arte, aut gloria de-
traham
;
sed
concedere
ab
:
illa
duo, Crasse, vereor, ut
unum, quod ab oratoribus
initio constitutas et
tibi
possim
civitates et
saepe conservatas esse dixisti
alterum, quod, remoto foro, concione, iudiciis, Senatu,
statuisti,
oratorem in omni genere sermonis et hu-
36 manitatis esse perfectum.
cesserit,
silvis
aut initio genus
Quis enim
hominum
dissipatum, non prudentium
pulsum
potius,
utilitates,
quam
tibi
hoc con-
montibus ac
sepsisse, aut vero
rehquas
aut in constituendis, aut in conservandis
civitatibus,
non a sapientibus et
fortibus viris, sed
37 a disertis, et ornate dicentibus esse constitutas
vero tibi Romulus
26
com-
consiliis
disertorum oratione delinitum,
moenibusque
se oppidis
in
ille
?
An
aut pastores et convenas con-
DE ORATORE,
I.
viii.
34—ix.
37
conclude the whole matter in a few words, for my
that the wise control of the comassertion is this
plete orator is that which chiefly upholds not only
his own dignity, but the safety of countless inGo forward
dividuals and of the entire State.
therefore, my young friends, in your present course,
and bend your energies to that study which engages
you, that so it may be in your power to become a
glory to yourselves, a source of service to your
friends, and profitable members of the Republic."
IX. Thereupon Scaevola observed, in his courteous Thesis chai35
way, " On his other points I am in agreement with th°e^achiivl.
Crassus (that I may not disparage the art or the ment of
renown of my father-in-law Gaius Laehus, or of my q^estioned
son-in-law here), but the two following, Crassus, I am
first your statement that
afraid I cannot grant you
the oratorswere they who in the beginning established
social communities, and who not seldom have preserved the same intact, secondly your pronouncement
that, even if we take no account of the forum, of
popular assembhes, of the courts of justice, or of the
Senate-house, the orator is still complete over the
For who is going
36 whole range of speech and culture.
to grant you, that in shutting themselves up in walled
:
^
:
human beings, who had been scattered originover mountain and forest, were not so much convinced by the reasoning of the wise as snared by the
speeches of the eloquent, or again that the other
beneficial arrangements involved in the establishment
or the preservation of States were not shaped by the
wise and valiant but by men of eloquence and fine
Or do you perhaps think that it was by
37 diction ?
eloquence, and not rather by good counsel and
singular wisdom, that the great Romulus gathered
cities,
ally
27
CICERO
gregasse, aut Sabinorum connubia coniunxisse, aut
finitimorum vim repressisse eloquentia videtur, non
consilio et sapientia singulari
?
Quid enim
in
?
Numa
Pompilio, quid ? in Ser. Tullio, quid ? in ceteris regibus,
quorum multa sunt eximia ad constituendam rempublicam, rium quod eloquentiae vestigium apparet
?
Quid ? exactis regibus (tametsi ipsam exactionem
mente, non lingua, perfectam L. Bruti esse cernimus),
sed deinceps omnia, nonne plena consiliorum, inania
38 verborum videmus ? Ego vero si velim et nostrae
civitatis
exemplis
uti,
et
aliarum, plura proferre
possim detrimenta publicis rebus,
quam adiumenta,
per homines eloquentissimos importata
reliqua praetermittam,
omnium mihi
sed,
:
ut
videor, exceptis,
Crasse, vobis duobus, eloquentissimos audisse Tib.
quorum pater, homo prudens et
haudquaquam eloquens, et saepe aUas, et
maxime censor, saluti reipublicae fuit. Atque is non
accurata quadam orationis copia, sed nutu atque verbo
et C. Sempronios,
gravis,
libertinos in urbanas tribus transtulit
fecisset,
rempubHcam, quam nunc
iamdiu nullam haberemus.
et omnibus
vel
ad dicendum
parati,
consilio, vel avitis
At vero
naturae, vel
cum
;
quod
vix
nisi
tenemus,
eius fiUi diserti,
doctrinae praesidiis
civitatem
vel
paterno
armis florentissimam accepissent,
Sempronius Gracchus, censor 169 b.c, enforced an
Freedmen not owning land worth at least
30,000 HS. were limited to the four city tribes. The restriction was removed, probably in 304, but was restored in 220.
28
" Ti.
existing rule.
DE ORATORE,
ix.
I.
37-38
together his shepherds and refugees, or brought
about marriages with the Sabines, or curbed the
might of the neighbouring tribes ? Is there a trace
of eloquence to be discerned in Numa PompiUus ?
Is there a trace in Servius Tulhus ?
Or in the other
kings who have contributed so much that is excellent
Then even after
to the building-up of the State ?
the kings had been driven forth (and we note that
such expulsion had itself been accomphshed by the
mind of Lucius Brutus and not by his tongue), do we
not see how all that foUowed was full of planning
For my part, indeed, should
38 and empty of talking ?
I care to use examples from our own and other
communities, I could cite more instances of damage
done, than of aid given to the cause of the State
by men of first-rate eloquence, but putting all else
aside, of all men to whom I have hstened except
you two, Crassus, it seems to me that the most
eloquent were Tiberius and Gaius Sempronius, whose
father, a man of discretion and character, but no
speaker whatever, was many a time and most particularly when Censor the salvation of the commonwealth. Yet it was not any studied flow of speech,
but a nod and a word of his that transferred the
freedmen into the city tribes * and had he not done
so, we should long ago have lost the constitution
which, as it is, we preserve only with difficulty. His
sons, on the other hand, who were accompHshed
speakers and equipped for oratory with every advantage of nature or training, after they had taken
over a State that was flourishing exceedingly because of their father's counsels and their ancestors'
miUtary achievements, wrecked the commonwealth
by the use of this eloquence to which, according
;
29
;
CICERO
ista praeclara gubernatrice,
ut
ais,
civitatum, elo-
quentia, rempublicam dissipaverunt.
39
X, Quid
quid
?
leges
veteres,
moresque maiorum
auspicia, quibus et ego, et tu, Crasse,
?
magna
reipublicae salute praesumus
ligiones et caerimoniae
;
quid
?
;
quid
haec iura
?
cum
re-
civilia,
quae iampridem in nostra familia sine uUa eloquentiae
laude versantur
;
num
aut inventa sunt, aut cognita,
omnino ab oratorum genere tractata ? Equidem
et Ser. Galbam, memoria teneo, divinum hominem
in dicendo, et M. Aemilium Porcinam, et C. ipsmn
Carbonem, quem tu adolescentulus perculisti, ignarum legum, haesitantem in maiorum institutis,
40 aut
rudem
in iure civili
;
et haec aetas nostra, praeter te,
Crasse, qui tuo magis studio,
quam
proprio
munere
quod
aliquo disertorum, ius a nobis civile didicisti,
interdum pudeat,
41
Quod
iuris
ignara
est.
vero in extrema oratione, quasi tuo iure
sumpsisti, oratorem in omnis sermonis disputatione
copiosissime posse versari, id, nisi hic in tuo regno
essemus, non tulissem, multisque praeessem, qui aut
interdicto
tecum contenderent, aut
te ex iure
manu
consertum vocarent, quod in alienas possessiones tam
42
temere irruisses.
Agerent enim tecum lege primum Pythagorei
omnes, atque Democritici, ceterique in iure physici
"
See Appendix
p. 480.
*
so
See Appendix
*
See Appendix
p. 480.
p. 480»
DE ORATORE,
to you, civil communities
I.
ix.
still
38— x.
42
look for their chief
guidance.
39
X. " What of our ancient ordinances and the cus- (2)otiier
toms of our forefathers ? What of augury, over which cl^izltlon
you and I, Crassus, preside, greatly to the welfare ™°5?i™;
^°
of the RepubUc ? What of our religious rites and
ceremonies ? What of those rules of private law,
which have long made their home in our family,
though we have no reputation for eloquence ? Were
these things contrived or investigated or in any way
hand by the tribe of orators ? Indeed I
remember that Servius Galba, a man who spoke as a
god, and Marcus AemiUus Porcina and Gaius Carbo
himself, whom you crushed in your early manhood,
were all of them ignorant of the statutes, all at a
complete loss among the institutions of our ancestors,
and
all uninstructed in the law of the Romans
except yourself, Crassus, who rather from your own
love of study, than because to do so was any pecuhar
duty of the eloquent, have learned the Roman system
from our family, this generation of ours is unversed
in law to a degree that sometimes makes one blush.
" But as for the claim you made at the close of your (3) the oniy
41
speech, and made as though in your own right that oratory
whatever the topic under discussion, the orator could the law
deal with it in complete fuUness this, had we not pariiament.
been here in your own domain, I would not have borne
with, and I should be at the head of a multitude who
would either fight you by injunction," or summon you
to make joint seizure by rule of court,'' for so wantonly
making forcible entry upon other people's possessions.
" For, to begin with, all the disciples of Pythagoras
42
and Democritus would bring statutory process "
against you, and the rest of the phvsicists would assert
31
40 taken in
;
—
—
CICERO
vindicarent, omati homines in dicendo et graves,
quibuscum tibi iusto sacramento contendere non
Urgerent praeterea philosophorum greges,
iam ab illo fonte et capite Socrate nihil te de bonis
rebus in vita, nihil de malis, nihil de animi permotionibus, nihil de hominum moribus, nihil de
ratione vitae didicisse, nihil omnino quaesisse, nihil
liceret.
;
et, cum universi in te impetum
tum singulae familiae Utem tibi intenderent.
scire convincerent
fecissent,
;
Academia, quae, quidquid dixisses, id te
ipsum negare cogeret. Stoici vero nostri disputationum suarum atque interrogationum laqueis te
irretitum tenerent.
Peripatetici autem etiam haec
ipsa, quae propria oratorum putas esse adiumenta,
atque ornamenta dicendi, ab se peti vincerent
oportere
ac non solum mehora, sed etiam multo
plura Aristotelem Theophrastumque de his rebus,
43 Instaret
;
quam omnes dicendi magistros, scripsisse ostenderent.
44 Missos facio mathematicos, grammaticos, musicos,
quorum artibus vestra ista dicendi vis ne minima
quidem societate contingitur. Quam ob rem ista
tanta, tamque multa profitenda, Crasse, non censeo.
Satis id est magnum, quod potes praestare, ut in
iudiciis ea causa, quamcumque tu dicis, melior et
probabilior
videatur
esse
;
ut
in
valeat oratio
;
"
8«
concionibus
et
ad persuadendum tua plurimum
denique ut prudentibus diserte stultis
sententiis dicendis
See Appendix
p. 480.
DE ORATORE,
I.
x.
42-44
their claims in court, elegant and impressive speakers
with whom you could not strive and save your stake.'*
Besides this, schools of philosophers, back to great
Socrates their fountain-head, would beset you
they
would demonstrate that you have learned nothing
concerning the good in Hfe, or of the evil, nothing as
:
to the emotions of the mind or of human conduct,
nothing of the true theory of hving, that you have
made no research at all and are wholly without understanding respecting these things ; and after this
general assault upon you each sect would launch its
43 particular action against you in detail. The Academy
would be at your heels, compelHng you to deny in
terms your own allegation, whatever
it
might have
Then our own
friends the Stoics would hold
you entangled in the toils of their wranghngs and
questionings. The Peripatetics again would prove
that it is to them that men should resort for even
those very aids and trappings of eloquence which you
deem to be the special aids of orators, and would show
you that on these subjects of yours Aristotle and
been.
Theophrastus wrote not only better but also much
more than all the teachers of rhetoric put together.
44 I say nothing of the mathematicians, men of letters
or devotees of the Muses, with whose arts this
rhetorical faculty of yours is not in the remotest
degree alhed. And so, Crassus, I do not think you
shouldmake professions so extensiveand so numerous.
What you are able to guarantee is a thing great
enough, namely, that in the courts whatever case you
present should appear to be the better and more
plausible, that in assemblies and in the Senate your
oratory should have most weight in carrying the vote,
and lastly, that to the intelhgent you should seem to
33
CICERO
Hoc amplius
etiam vere dicere videaris.
poteris,
non
quadam
si
quid
id mihi videbitur orator, sed Crassus sua
propria,
non communi oratorum
facultate,
posse.
XI.
45
Tum
ista inter
ille
:
Non sum,
Graecos
inquit, nescius, Scaevola,
dici et disceptari solere.
Audivi
enim summos homines, cum quaestor ex Macedonia
venissem Athenas, florente Academia, ut temporibus
illis
ferebatur,
quod eam Charmadas,
qui
cum
illis
audierat,
Mnesarchus
diligentius
in dicendo, ut ferebant,
et copiosissimum.
aetii illius tui
46 Diodorus.
Chtomachus,
una ipsum illum Carneadem
hominem omnium
acerrimum
et
Erat etiam Metrodorus,
et Aeschines obtinebant.
;
Vigebat auditor Panet Peripatetici Critolai
Multi erant praeterea
et nobiles, a quibus omnibus
clari in
philosophia
una paene voce
repelli
oratorem a gubernaculis civitatum, excludi ab omni
doctrina rerumque
maiorum
iudicia et conciunculas,
47
num, detrudi
illis
scientia, ac
tanquam
et compingi videbam.
assentiebar,
tantum
Sed ego neque
neque harum disputationum
ventori et principi longe
omnium
in
in aliquod pistri-
in-
in dicendo gravis-
simo et eloquentissimo, Platoni, cuius tum Athenis
cum Charmada diligentius legi Gorgiam quo in
libro in hoc maxime admirabar Platonem, quod mihi
:
84,
—
DE ORATORE,
I.
x.
44—xi.
47
speak eloquently and to the ignorant truthfuUy as
If you can achieve anything more than this,
well.
therein you will seem to me not an orator but a
Crassus,
who
pecuharly his
is
making use of some
own and not common
talent that is
to orators in
general."
45
XI.
Then Crassus rephed,
"
I
know very well, Scaeput forward
For I hstened to
vola, that these views of yours are often
and discussed among the Greeks.
most eminent men, on my arrival in Athens
as a quaestor from Macedonia, at a time when
the Academy was at its best, as was then asserted,
with Charmadas, Chtomachus and Aeschines to uphold it. There was also Metrodorus, who, together
with the others, had been a really dihgent disciple
of the illustrious Carneades himself, a speaker who,
for spirited and copious oratory, surpassed, it was
Mnesarchus too was in his
said, all other men.
prime, a pupil of your great Panaetius, and Diodorus,
There
46 who studied under Critolaus the Peripatetic.
were many others besides, of distinguished fame as
philosophers, by all of whom, with one voice as it
were, I perceived that the orator was driven from
the helm of State, shut out from all learning and
knowledge of more important things, and thrust
down and locked up exclusively in law-courts and
their
47
petty httle assembhes, as if in a pounding-mill.
But I was neither in agreement with these men, nor
with the author and originator of such discussions,
who spoke with far more weight and eloquence than
whose Gorgias I read
I mean Plato
all of them
with close attention under Charmadas during those
days at Athens, and what impressed me most deeply
about Plato in that book was, that it was when making
35
—
Repiy to
funct^i"^*j,
oratoiy
^quf^s*^
science,
requires
«'yie.
CICERO
in oratoribus irridendis ipse esse orator
summus
Nam
si
tantummodo
quis
hunc
vide-
iamdiu torquet
controversia
quam
homines, contentionis cupidiores
Graeculos
48 veritatis.
qui
enim
Verbi
batur.
statuit esse oratorem,
in iure, aut in iudiciis possit, aut
apud populum, aut
in senatu copiose loqui,
tamen
huic ipsi multa tribuat et concedat necesse est, neque
enim
multa
sine
omnium rerum
pertractatione
publicarum, neque sine
legum, morum,
iuris scientia,
neque natura hominum incognita, ac moribus,
in his
rebus satis callide versari et perite potest.
Qui
ipsis
haec cognoverit, sine quibus ne
autem
minima
in causis
quisquam recte
illa
tueri potest, quid
maximarum rerum
huic abesse poterit de
quidem
scientia
?
Sin oratoris nihil vis esse, nisi composite, ornate,
copiose eloqui
quaero, id ipsum qui possit assequi
:
sine ea scientia,
enim
quam
ei
non conceditis
49 percepta sint, exstare
ornate locutus
physicus
de qua
ille
est.
;
Quam
non potest.
sicut fertur,
Democritus
dixit
putandus
est,
:
Dicendi
?
de quibus
virtus, nisi ei, qui dicit, ea,
ob rem,
et mihi
materies
concedo
36
;
si
videtur,
illa fuit
physici,
ornatus vero ipse verborum, oratoris
Et,
si
Plato de rebus a civiUbus con-
troversiis remotissimis divinitus est locutus,
si
dicit,
item Aristoteles,
si
quod ego
Theophrastus,
si
DE ORATORE,
I.
xi.
47-49
fun of orators that he himself seemed to me to be
the consummate orator. In fact controversy about a
word has long tormented those Greeklings, fonder as
For, if anyone
48 they are of argument than of truth,
lays it down that an orator is a man whose sole power
is that of speaking copiously before the Praetor or
at a trial, or in the pubhc assembly or the Senatehouse, none the less even to an orator thus Umited
such critic must grant and allow a number of attributes, inasmuch as without extensive handUng of all
pubhc business, without a mastery of ordinances,
customs and general law, without a knowledge of
human nature and character, he cannot engage, with
the requisite cleverness and skill, even in these reBut to a man who has learned
stricted activities.
these things, without which no one can properly
ensure even those primary essentials of advocacy,
can there be anything lacking that belongs to the
knowledge of the highest matters ? If, on the other
hand, you would narrow the idea of oratory to nothing
but the speaking in ordered fashion, gracefuUy and
copiously, how, I ask, could your orator attain even
so much, if he were to lack that knowledge whereof
you people deny him the possession ? For excellence in
speaking cannot be made manifest unless the speaker
fuUy comprehends the matter he speaks about.
49 It foUows that, if the famous natural philosopher
Democritus spoke with elegance, as he is reported
and appears to me to have spoken, those notable
subjects of his discourse belonged to the natural
philosopher, but his actual elegance of diction must be
put down to the orator. And if Plato spoke with the
voice of a god of things very far away from pohtical
debate, as I allow that he did, if again Aristotle and
87
CICERO
Carneades in rebus
eloquentes,
fuerunt
:
et
sint
quibusdam
studiis
de quibus disputaverunt,
dicendo
in
hae
eis,
res,
;
suaves,
atque
ornati
de quibus disputant, in
quidem
oratio
aliis
ipsa propria est
huius unius rationis, de qua loquimur et quaerimus.
50
Etenim videmus, eisdem de rebus ieiune quosdam
ut eum,
exiliter,
quem acutissimum
et
ferunt, Chrys-
ippum, disputavisse, neque ob eam rem philosophiae
non
satisfecisse,
quod non habuerit hanc dicendi ex
arte ahena facultatem.
XII. Quid ergo interest
?
aut qui discernes eorum,
quos nominavi, ubertatem in dicendo et copiam ab
eorum
exihtate, qui hac dicendi varietate et elegantia
non utuntur
?
Unum
erit profecto,
dicunt, afferant proprium
et ornatam, et artificio
Haec autem
tinctam.
:
quod
ei,
qui bene
compositam orationem,
quodam
et expohtione dis-
oratio, si res
oratore percepta et cognita, aut nulla
non subest ab
sit
necesse est,
omnium irrisione ludatur. Quid est enim tam
furiosum, quam verborimi, vel optimorum atque
61 aut
ornatissimorum, sonitus inanis, nulla subiecta sententia,
nec scientia
?
Quidquid
erit
igitur
qua-
cumque ex arte, quocumque de genere, id orator,
tanquam cHentis causam, didicerit, dicet melius
ornatius,
62
Nam
88
si
quam ille ipse eius rei
si,
et
inventor atque artifex.
quis erit, qui hoc dicat, esse
quasdam
ora-
DE ORATORE,
I.
xi.
49— xii.
52
Theophrastus and Carneades, on the themes which
they treated, were eloquent and displayed charm of
style and Uterary form, then, granting that the topics
of their discourse may be found in certain other fields
of research, yet their actual style is the pecuhar product of this pursuit which we are now discussing and
50 investigating, and of no other,
For we see that
sundry authorities dealt with these same subjects
in spiritless and feeble fashion, Chrysippus for instance, reputed as he is to have been the most acute
of disputants, and not to have failed to meet the
requirements of philosophy just because he had not
acquired this gift of eloquence from an aUen art.
XII. " What then is the difference, or by what
means will youdiscriminate between the rich and copious diction of those speakers whom I have mentioned,
and the feebleness of such as do not adopt this variety
and elegance of language ? The sole distinction will
surely be that the good speakers bring, as their
peculiar possession, a style that is harmonious, grace-
and pohsh. Yet
be not
comprehended and mastered by the speaker, must
inevitably be of no account or even become the sport
61 of universal derision.
For what so efFectually proclaims the madman as the hollow thundering of words
be they never so choice and resplendent which
have no thought or knowledge behind them ? Therefore whatever the theme, from whatever art or whatever branch of knowledge it be taken, the orator, just
as if he had got up the case for a client, will state it
better and more gracefully than the actual discoverer
62 and the speciahst.
For if anyone is going to affirm
that there are certain ideas and subjects which speciS9
ful,
and marked by a certain
artistry
this style, if the underlying subject-matter
—
—
:
CICERO
torum proprias sententias atque causas, et certarum
rerum forensibus cancellis circumscriptam scientiam
fatebor equidem in his magis assidue versari hanc
nostram dictionem
sed tamen in his
;
permulta sunt, quae
isti
rebus
Quis enim nescit,
63 tur, nec tradunt, nec tenent.
maximam vim
ipsis
magistri, qui rhetorici vocan-
exsistere oratoris in
hominum men-
tibus vel ad iram, aut ad odium, aut ad dolorem
incitandis,
vel
ab hisce eisdem permotionibus ad
Quare, nisi
lenitatem misericordiamque revocandis ?
qui naturas hominum, vimque
omnem
humanitatis,
causasque eas, quibus mentes aut incitantur, aut
reflectuntur,
penitus
54 volet, perficere
non
perspexerit,
philosophorum proprius videtur
auctore,
dicendo,
quod
Atqui totus hic locus
poterit.
unquam repugnabit
:
;
neque
sed, cimi
orator,
illis
cogni-
tionem rerum concesserit, quod in ea solum
voluerint elaborare
sine
est
illa
oratoris,
gravis, et ornata, et
ilH
tractationem orationis, quae
;
scientia nulla est, sibi assumet.
proprium
me
quod saepe iam
hominum
Hoc enim
dixi, oratio
sensibus ac mentibus
accommodata.
65
XIII.
Quibus de rebus
phrastum
scripsisse fateor
:
Aristotelem
et
Theo-
sed vide, ne hoc, Scae-
totum sit a me nam ego, quae sunt oratori cum
communia, non mutuor ab ilUs isti, quae de his
rebus disputant, oratorum esse concedunt, itaque
vola,
ilUs
40
;
;
DE ORATORE,
I.
xii.
52— xiii.
55
ally belong to orators, and certain matters whereof
the knowledge is railed-off behind the barriers of
the Courts, while I will admit that these oratorical
activities of ours are exercised within this area with
less intermission than elsewhere, nevertheless among
these very topics there are points in abundance which
even the so-called professors of rhetoric neither teach
63 nor understand.
Who indeed does not know that the
orator's virtue is pre-eminently manifested either in
rousing men's hearts to anger, hatred, or indignation,
or in recaUing them from these same passions to mildness and mercy ? Wherefore the speaker will not be
able to achieve what he wants by his words, unless
he has gained profound insight into the characters of
men, and the whole range of human nature, and
those motives whereby our souls are spurred on or
54 turned back.
And all this is considered to be the
special province of philosophers, nor will the orator, if
he take my advice, resist their claim but when he
has granted their knowledge of these things, since
they have devoted all their labour to that alone, still
he will assert his own claim to the oratorical treatment of them, which without that knowledge of theirs
is nothing at all.
For this is the essential concern of
the orator, as I have often said before, a style that
is dignified and graceful and in conformity with the
general modes of thought and judgement.
XIII. " And while I acknowledge that Aristotle and Rtefcoric la
55
^*''®"'*®'
Theophrastus have written about all these things, ^
yet consider, Scaevola, whether it is not wholly in
my favour, that, whereas I do not borrow from them
the things that they share with the orator, they on
their part grant that their discussions on these subjects are the orator's own, and accordingly they
41
r
;
—
CICERO
ceteros libros artis
suae nomine, hos Rhetoricos
isti
C6 et inscribunt, et appellant.
dicendo inciderint
Etenim cum
illi
in
(quod persaepe evenit), ut
de diis immortalibus, de pietate, de concordia, de
amicitia, de communi civium, de hominum, de gentium iure, de aequitate, de temperantia, de magnitudine animi, de omni virtutis genere sit dicendum,
clamabunt, credo, omnia gymnasia, atque omnes
philosophorum scholae, sua haec esse omnia propria ;
nihil omnino ad oratorem pertinere.
Quibus ego,
ut de his rebus omnibus in angulis, consumendi
otii
loci
causa, disserant,
cum
concessero, illud
tamen
eadem, de quibus illi
tenui quodam exsanguique sermone disputant, hic
57 cum omni gravitate et iucunditate explicet. Haec
ego cum ipsis philosophis tum Athenis disserebam,
cogebat enim me M. Marcellus hic noster, qui nunc
aedilis curulis est
et profecto, nisi ludos nunc
faceret, huic nostro sermoni interesset
ac iam tvun
oratori tribuam et dabo, ut
;
;
erat adolescentulus his studiis mirifice deditus.
lam vero de
68
de
sociis,
legibus instituendis, de bello, de pace,
de vectigahbus, de iure civiU generatim
in ordines aetatesque descripto, dicant vel Graeci,
volunt, Lycurgum, aut Solonem (quanquam illos
quidem censemus in numero eloquentium reponendos)
scisse melius, quam Hyperidem, aut Demosthenem,
perfectos iam homines in dicendo, et perpolitos
si
;
The
plebis by
"
'
praetexta.
42
curule
'
from the aediles
curulis and the toga
aediles were distinguished
their right to use the aella
DE ORATORE,
entitle and designate
some name taken from
I.
xiii.
55-58
all their other treatises by
their distinctive art, but these
66 particular books as dealing with Rhetoric.
deed when, while a man is speaking as often
—such
—
commonplaces have cropped up
some mention of the immortal gods, of
And
in-
happens
as demand
dutifulness,
harmony, or friendship, of the rights shared by citizens, by men in general, and by nations, of fair-dealing, moderation or greatness of soul, or virtue of any
and every kind, all the academies and schools of
philosophy will, I do beheve, raise the cry that all
these matters are their exclusive province, and in no
way whatever the concem of the orator. But when
I have allowed that they may debate these subjects
in their holes and corners, to pass an idle hour, it is
to the orator none the less that I shall entrust and
assign the task of developing with complete charm
and cogency the same themes which they discuss in a
These points I used
67 sort of thin and bloodless style.
to argue at Athens ynth. the philosophers in person,
under pressure from our friend Marcus Marcellus,
who is now Aedile of the Chair," and assuredly, if he
were not at this moment producing the Games, would
be taking part in our present colloquy ; indeed even
in those days of his early youth his devotion to these
studies was marvellous.
" But now as regards the institution of laws, as
68
regards war and peace, allies and public dues, and
Exposition
^^**^*^^
the legal rights assigned to classes of citizens accord- knowiedge
^*^^®*
ing to variations of rank and age, let the Greeks say, ^^^
if they please, that Lycurgus and Solon (although I
hold that they should be rated as eloquent) were
better informed than Hyperides or Demosthenes,
who were really accomplished and highly pohshed
4S
CICERO
vel nostri decemviros, qui
Duodecim Tabulas
per-
scripserunt, quos necesse est fuisse prudentes, ante-
ponant in hoc genere et
Ser. Galbae, et socero tuo
C. Laelio, quos constat dicendi gloria praestitisse.
59
Nunquam enim
negabo, esse quasdam artes proprias
eorum, qui in his cognoscendis atque tractandis
studium
suum omne posuerunt
plenum atque perfectum
;
eum
esse
omnibus rebus possit varie copioseque
XIV. Etenim saepe
prias esse
ex usu
oratorem
dicere.
in eis causis, quas
omnes
pro-
oratorum confitentur, est aliquid, quod non
forensi,
quem solum
oratoribus conceditis, sed
ex obscuriore aliqua scientia
60
sed
dicam, qui de
sumendum.
sit
Quaero enim, num
promendum atque
possit aut contra
irnperatorem, aut pro imperatore dici sine rei militaris usu,
aut saepe etiam sine regionum terrestrium
num apud populum de
num in Senatu de
omni reipubhcae genere dici sine summa rerum
civilium cognitione, et prudentia
num admoveri
aut maritimarum scientia
;
legibus iubendis, aut vetandis
;
;
possit oratio
ad sensus animorum atque motus
inflammandos, vel etiam exstinguendos (quod
vel
unum
in oratore dominatur), sine diligentissima pervestiga-
tione
61
earum omnium rationum, quae de
naturis hu-
mani generis ac moribus a philosophis explicantur.
Atque haud scio, an minus hoc vobis sim proba44
—
DE ORATORE,
I.
xiii.
58— xiv.
61
or let our own folk prefer in this regard
;
the Ten Commissioners who wrote out the Twelve
Tables and were necessarily men of practical wisdom
to Servius Galba and your father-in-law Gaius
LaeHus, whose outstanding renown for eloquence is
For never will I say that there are not
69 estabhshed.
certain arts belonging exclusively to those who have
employed all their energies in the mastery and exercise thereof, but my assertion will be that the comorators
—
—
and finished orator is he who on any matter
whatever can speak with fullness and variety.
XIV. " Indeed in handUng those causes which xhe orator
everybody acknowledges to be within the exclusive ^^^ ^^^"^
sphere of oratory, there is not seldom something to
be brought forth and employed, not from practice in
public speaking the only thing you allow the orator
but from some more abstruse branch of knowledge.
60 I ask, for instance, whether an advocate can either
assail or defend a commander-in-chief without experience of the art of war, or sometimes too without
knowledge of the various regions of land or sea ?
Whether he can address the popular assembly in
plete
—
—
favour of the passing or rejection of legislative proposals, or the Senate concerning any of the departments of State administration, if he lack consummate
of
practical as well as theoretical
knowledge
Whether a speech can be directed
political science ?
to inflaming or even repressing feeUng and passion
a faculty of the first importance to the orator
unless the speaker has made a most careful search
into all those theories respecting the natural characters and the habits of conduct of mankind, which
are unfolded by the philosophers ?
" And I rather think I shaU come short of convincing
61
45
—
—
—
CICERO
turus
equidem non dubitabo, quod
;
sentio, dicere
:
physica ista ipsa, et mathematica, et quae paulo ante
ceterarum artium propria posuisti, scientiae sunt
eorum, qui
tione
62
confugiendum
est facultatem.
fecit, constat, perdiserte
operis sui reddidisse,
si
Phi-
populo rationem
existimandum
quam
potius artificio disertum,
huic
Neque enim,
architectum, qui Atheniensibus arma-
illimi
mentarium
si
ora-
quis istas ipsas artes velit, ad oratoris ei
si
lonem
autem
profitentur, illustrare
illa
est, architecti
oratoris, fuisse.
Nec,
M. Antonio pro Hermodoro fuisset de navalium
opere dicendum, non,
cum ab
illo
causam
didicisset,
ipse ornate de alieno artificio copioseque dixisset.
Neque vero Asclepiades
usi
sumus, tum,
cum
is,
quo nos medico amicoque
eloquentia vincebat ceteros
medicos, in eo ipso, quod ornate dicebat, medicinae
63 facultate
utebatur, non eloquentiae.
est probabilius,
dicere solebat,
eloquentes
omnes
disertiun esse posse,
optime
sciat,
mea
46
vim
illud
scirent, satis esse
neque quemquam
sit
;
si
tam
in eo
si
id
sciat, dicere.
quis universam et propriam
definire complectique vult,
sententia, hoc
neque,
faciundae ac pohendae
ipsum posse, de quo
XV. Quam ob rem,
oratoris
quod
quod nesciat
ignarusque
orationis, diserte id
64
in eo,
illud verius,
;
Atque
neque tamen verum, quod Socrates
is
orator erit,
gravi dignus nomine, qui,
DE ORATORE,
you on my next point
my mind
—at
I.
all
xiv.
61—xv.
events
I will
64
not hesitate
your natural science itself, your
mathematics, and other studies which just now you
reckoned as belonging peculiarly to the rest of the
arts, do indeed pertain to the knowledge of their
professors, yet if anyone should wish by speaking to
put these same arts in their fuU Hght, it is to oratorical
If, again, it is estab62 skill that he must run for help.
to speak
:
science and
phWosophy
to oratory
^°^ ^^^'^*
•
lished that Philo, that master-builder who constructed
an arsenal for the Athenians, described the plan of
his work very eloquently to the people, his eloquence
must be ascribed not to his architectural, but rather
So too, if Marcus Antonius
to his oratorical ability.
here had had to speak on behalf of Hermodorus upon
the construction of dockyards, having got up his case
from his client, he would then have discoursed gracefully and copiously of an art to which he was not a
Asclepiades also, he with whom we have
stranger.
been famiUar both as physician and as friend, at the
time when he was surpassing the rest of his profession
in eloquence, was exhibiting, in such graceful speakIn
63 ing, the skill of an orator, not that of a physician.
that every
fact that favourite assertion of Socrates
man was eloquent enough upon a subject that he
knew has in it some plausibiHty but no truth it
is nearer the truth to say that neither can anyone be
eloquent upon a subject that is unknown to him, nor,
if he knows it perfectly and yet does not know how
to shape and pohsh his style, can he speak fluently
even upon that which he does know.
XV. " Accordingly, should anyone wish to define in
64
a comprehensive manner the complete and special
meaning of the word, he will be an orator, in my
opinion worthy of so dignified a title, who, whatever
—
—
:
47
xhe orator
?*° ^et up
caiities,
^® ™*"*
but
^
CICERO
quaecumque
res inciderit,
quae
dictione expli-
sit
canda, prudenter, et composite, et ornate, et me-
cum quadam etiam
moriter dicat,
actionis dignitate.
quod
65 Sin cuipiam nimis infinitum videtur
'
quacumque de
re,' licet hinc,
debitur, circumcidat atque
nebo,
si,
quae
amputet
tamen
:
vi-
illud te-
ceteris in artibus aut studiis sita sunt,
tantumque ea teneat, quae
orator ignoret,
disceptationibus, atque in usu forensi
rebus
ita posui,
quantum cuique
ipsis si sit ei
dicendum,
cum
;
sint in
tamen
his
cognoverit ab
de
eis,
qui tenent, quae sint in quaque re, multo oratorem
melius,
quam
gg dicturum.
ipsos
Ita
si
illos,
de re
quorum eae sunt
dicendum huic
militari
Mario
Sulpicio, quaeret a C.
affini
nostro, et,
civili,
quam
erit
cum
Mario paene
acceperit, ita pronuntiabit, ut ipsi C.
hic melius,
artes, esse
ipse, illa scire videatur
;
sin
de iure
tecum communicabit, teque hominem pru-
dentissimum et peritissimum in
eis ipsis rebus,
g7 abs te didicerit, dicendi arte superabit.
res inciderit, in
qua de natura, de
vitiis
quas
Sin quae
hominum,
de cupiditatibus, de modo, de continentia, de dolore,
de morte dicendum
sit
;
forsitan, si ei sit
haec quidem nosse debet orator),
cum
visum
erudito homine in philosophia, communicarit
profecto
48
efficiet,
ut,
(etsi
Sex. Pompeio,
quamcumque rem
;
hoc
a quoque
DE ORATORE,
I.
xv. 64-67
the topic that crops up to be unfolded in discourse,
will speak thereon with knowledge, method, charm
and retentive memory,combiningwith these qualificaIf however
65 tions a certain distinction of bearing.
someone considers my expression
whatever the
topic to be altogether too extensive, he may clip
'